“Small Choices Change Everything” –Tom Rath Welcome to 2014. In some ways, the transition from one year to another is fairly meaningless. You flip a page on a calendar and move on. You are the same person you were before. Yes, there is this cultural habit of establishing new goals or “resolutions” for the year […]

I was recently dealing with a nasty case of medial epicondylitis (otherwise known as “golfer’s elbow”) characterized by tender pain just inside my right elbow. Those who know me are probably thinking, “but you don’t play golf!” And they’re right. I don’t. But apparently you can get golfer’s elbow from doing too many pull-ups and […]

My son Dylan is fascinated with garbage men. He will scream with glee, “The garbage truck is coming!” and rush to the window of the house to watch them load their rubbish into their giant truck. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we time it right and come out in front of the house just as […]

Paul Nicholson via Compfight I am not a religious man. In fact, in a survey of character strengths, spirituality or “religiousness” comes out as my lowest strength, number 24 out of 24. If there is a weakness that I need to work on . . . this is it. A lot of the guidance that […]

There has been a lot of talk lately about the “commoditization of mindfulness” in corporate America. Invariably, when I post an article that talks about using strategies of mindfulness or positive psychology to improve employee satisfaction or engagement, I get a mixed response. There are some who believe that by promoting these strategies, I am […]

Shandi-lee Cox via Compfight We all know great conversations when we find ourselves in one. We find an area of common interest with another human being and the dialogue just flows. But these moments don’t come along as often as we like. With a stranger, we don’t know where to begin. And in a long-term […]

As a father of two toddlers (one 3 ½ years old and one just over 1 ½) I’m often amazed at their capacity for mindfulness. I’ve been saying that mindfulness will be the big wellness trend of the next decade. But it doesn’t come easily to most of us. In an increasingly fast-paced world fraught […]

PC – My Shots@Photography via Compfight As October comes to an end, so too does my season of fun. Every year, from April to October, I spend almost every weekend at the beach in Long Beach, Long Island. My wife and I both surf and play beach volleyball, and we bring our kids, who play […]

Two weeks ago at the Global Spa & Wellness Summit, I had the chance to hear from Dasho Karma Ura, the President of the Center for Bhutan Studies who spoke about their government’s unique approach towards Gross National Happiness. For the last several years, the Kingdom of Bhutan has inspired the world with their unique […]

Longtime readers of my blog will know that I am not a vegetarian (see Confessions of a Carnivore,) but that I believe in both the physical and moral benefits of eating less meat (see On Eating Animals and Exercising Your Moral Muscles.) One of the most compelling voices in this area is Sandra Higgins, an Irish […]